The mental hill ride

Lately while riding with Chris and Bryan on for me somewhat longer rides I’ve come to the conclusion that what I’m lacking is good hard long miles and even more so hills. So, I decided that while I’ve got some time in between big races I’d like to get as much riding in as possible, both hilly and long. In that mindset I joined the lunch time hill ride out in Arlington; the post ride mindset is significantly different, though mostly because the current mindset is blank.

Scott told me earlier that he was planning on attacking early and often and doing as much damage to himself and others as he could and attack he did. I basically got shelled up the first hill and only managed to catch up after a couple of traffic lights stopped the group ahead. They let down a bit after that and I managed to hang on for a while until my chain fell off and I never saw them again. I did join up with two other guys for the majority of the rest of the ride, though I ended up going the wrong way and chasing them for a while and afterwards was dangling on and off the back of the remainder.

I’d wanted to head out Glebe to Chain Bridge so I could stop by my house and switch bikes so as not to have the Cannondale out with me for softball tonight on the mall, but I went the wrong way on Glebe and ended up catching 50 back through Clarendon. Probably for the best since I think the way to my house from Chain Bridge is a bit of a tough ride. All in all I think I got in a good 25 or 30 miles so I’m happy with that.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it) while reviewing my heart rate data I noted that I was well below my max levels meaning I had a lot more I should have been able to give. I know that mentally when I first went off the back I got defeated, though when I got back in I started to feel a little better and rode a little harder. I can see now that I’ve got some work to do on the mental aspect of my riding as well as the physical.

Not saying I could have hung with those guys up front, but I think I can ride harder then I allow myself to believe during rides.